This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Friction-welding techniques, including spin-welding, may be used for joining various materials. For example, molded polymeric or plastic components may be joined or assembled via a spin-welding process, where heat is generated through mechanical friction between a moving component and a stationary component. A region of material that is heated near the friction zone softens and may be displaced; thus, a fused region is created having materials from both the moving component and the stationary component. However, there are limitations on conventional spin-welding of polymeric or plastic parts. For example, forming a friction-welded part assembly by spin-welding is typically restricted to using parts having small surface areas and complementary shapes, e.g., parts with mating joint surfaces that are cylindrical and concentric to one another, at the interface to be joined. Furthermore, conventional spin-welding equipment is specialized to exert high speeds and forces on the parts to effectively fuse the interface and thus requires significant equipment expense and training.
Polymeric parts having joint interface regions with large surface areas, complex designs, non-cylindrical and/or non-complementary shapes have not been previously joined using conventional spin welding processes. This is due to the intrinsic shape and dimensions of such parts, which has implications on radius dependent shear, shear rate, and therefore viscosity change during the process. Thus, it has not been previously possible to use spin-welding to join plastic or polymeric parts having large surface area interfaces or interfaces that are non-cylindrical or otherwise non-complementary. It would be desirable to have processes and tools that facilitate spin-welding of parts having joint interface regions with large surface areas or non-complementary shapes to form robust friction-weld joints. Additionally, it would also be advantageous to have the ability to conduct such processes at relatively low speeds on non-specialized equipment.